Australian patent specification 633038 discloses a frozen confection dispensing apparatus employing a collapsible container for holding the frozen confection. The container is not self supporting and is received in a hollow casing. A bellows arrangement is under constant pressurisation and acts upon the container to dispense confection from the container. The container has an outlet which is coupled via a dispensing conduit to a dispensing valve. This apparatus includes means for tempering frozen confection in the container to transform the confection from a hard frozen condition at a first sub-freezing temperature to a soft serve condition at a higher second sub-freezing temperature. Thermal insulation is disclosed for maintaining the container at the second temperature.
With such an arrangement a dispensive valve is necessary and requires periodic cleaning. This apparatus is not particularly effective in dispensing confection having entrained solid particles such as pieces of nuts or the like. Such solids tend to adversely affect the operation of the valve. The container needs to be supported by a hollow casing and thus adds to the complexity of the apparatus. The dispensing conduit requires regular cleaning.
The pressure applied to the container by the bellows is constant and not relaxed between serves. Soft serve confection is aerated to give it a desired consistency and quality. The application of constant pressure on the container leads to loss of this aeration and overrun during dispensing. Thus results in wastage and deterioration of the iced confection.
Australian patent specification 618979 discloses another dispensing apparatus for frozen confection. The apparatus of this patent specification suffers from the same disadvantages as the apparatus of the specification just discussed. The apparatus of specification 618979 has a bellows shaped dispensing container from which the contents is dispensed via a passage terminated in a dispensing valve. The bellows shaped container does not allow all of its contents to be dispensed and wastage also occurs for this reason.
Australian patent specification 577058/94 discloses yet another apparatus for dispensing soft serve frozen confection. That apparatus employs a container having a deformable upper portion and has an integrally formed outlet from which contents within the container may be directly dispensed by application of pressure on the upper portion of the container by a plunger. The outlet is normally sealed by a cover which is removed prior to commencing a dispensing operation. Once again, the plunger functions continuously pressurise the container.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a dispensing apparatus which at least minimises some of the disadvantages referred to above.